Or, even more curious, why are so many British authorities so bizarrely (to the point it's funny) protective over electricity, fining people and threatening to call police on people who try to charge their phones in train stations, for example?
It's a pain they are not the same as the rest of Europe, but what is cumbersome and over-designed about UK plugs?
Follow up question, why Swiss plug needed to be so close to the rest of Europe, but different anyway? (same distance between the 2 pins, but the pins are a bit thinner and the ground is in the opposite way).
The size is definitely cumbersome. Look how much bigger they are than US/EU/AU plugs, basically any other countries plugs.
I'd call having a fuse in the plug itself over-designed.
> Follow up question, why Swiss plug needed to be so close to the rest of Europe, but different anyway?
I have the same question about AU plugs. Literally the same as the US plugs (newer ones that don't have one side larger at least), just at an angle.
Personally, I'm quite happy that all my lower power devices with relatively thin power cables are protected by a 3A fuse. There's no risk of causing those cables to catch fire if there's a fault that draws 20A, which isn't enough to blow the 32A breaker on that ring.
How much difference it makes in practice though? Pretty sure that if I short the power at the device end of a 5A cable, the 32A breaker would blow before the cable caught fire. But I'm happy not to depend on that.
Seems to me it's somewhat like having an additional seatbelt for your head, which might protect against whiplash but isn't justified by the inconvenience.
>I'd call having a fuse in the plug itself over-designed.
I wouldn't. A UK mains circuit typically has a 32A breaker. Pulling that much current through an appliance that's designed for a fraction of an amp or a cable that's designed for 3A is obviously a very hazardous fault condition. Some appliances have a built-in fuse, but many don't and that still doesn't offer the same level of protection as a suitably-sized fuse in the plug.
How much does a folding plug fold? Look how minimal this[0] is, I've never seen any UK plug anywhere close to that size.
> I wouldn't
Any reason the fuse couldn't go in the socket instead?
[0] https://i0.wp.com/www.cablesgo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/0...
Because changing the fuse in a socket just because you're unplugging a lamp and plugging in a kettle would be very stupid. With the fuse in the plug, you have the correct fuse in every plug.
That's my main problem since I travel a lot, or used to at least.
Aside from old-style type-C plugs (two prongs) in old sockets, I've never seen an EU plug work itself loose in a socket, let alone slip out of it. Usually, there's the reverse problem: they're difficult to unplug, even when you want to.
In the US, the cord would likely pull out of the wall, safely.
What hairdryer? British building regs restrict you to an isolated "shaver" socket in the bathroom which takes different plugs. You can't drop a hairdryer in the bath unless you play silly games with extension cables.